Making the case for the right to life of every innocent, from Lake County, Illinois

Sunday, May 22, 2016

A Real Plus

General Conference of the United Methodist
Church votes overwhelming to withdraw from Religious Coalition for
Reproductive Choice

By Dave Andrusko

The
Rev. Beth Ann Cook, Indiana Conference, introduces a petition from the
Church and Society legislative committee regarding The United Methodist
Church’s association with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive
Choice. [Maile Bradfield, UMNS]

An incredible turn of events.
Yesterday, on a vote of 425 to 268 (61% to 39%), delegates to the
quadrennial General Conference meeting of the United Methodist Church
voted that two United Methodist entities withdraw immediately from
membership in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC).

The two coalition members of RCRC are the General Board on Church and Society (GBCS) and United Methodist Women (UMW).
As the Rev. Paul Stallsworth has written for NRL News Today,
RCRC “is dedicated to keeping abortion–all abortions, of all unborn
children, for any reason or no reason–legal in American society. In
other words, RCRC never, ever speaks or lobbies or writes against
abortion.”
“There is nothing moderate or nuanced about RCRC, which has
consistently lobbied to defend grisly ‘partial-birth’ abortions, even
after our Social Principles included a statement ‘call[ing] for the end
of this late-term practice,’” said John Lomperis, a delegate to the
General Conference and United Methodist director at the Institute on
Religion and Democracy. “In contrast to the United Methodist Church,
RCRC dismisses the value of unborn human life. RCRC even promotes
rituals to bless all the work of elective abortion clinics, describing
aborting unborn children as always ‘holy work.’”
Lomperis added, “This is a necessary and good step towards affirming
that the unborn are persons of sacred worth. This also shows the UMC
moving away from other liberal, declining, ‘mainline’ denominations to
embrace a new faithful, global identity.”

The United Methodist Reporter published addition details and background on yesterday’s turnabout.
“[F]ive annual conferences submitted a petition to withdraw from the
RCRC—Mississippi, North Carolina, Indiana, Western Pennsylvania and
Alabama-West Florida—stating that RCRC’s advocacy often directly
contradicts The United Methodist Church’s Social Principles on abortion,
but it still uses the UMC name,” according to Jessica Brodie. “The
committee assigned to this petition, Church and Society 2, voted 44-25
last week to adopt it.”

Opponents tried to soften the impact by offering an unsuccessful
motion “to refer the petition to the General Council on Finance and
Administration, but the UMC gives no money to RCRC,” Brodie, the editor
of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, explained.
Brodie quoted an opponent who “urged fellow delegates to keep the
UMC’s voice at the reproductive health table.” But delegate Katherine
Rohrs from West Ohio, was having none of that. Speaking in favor of the
withdrawal she said

she’s heard time and again about the need to stay at the table because the UMC’s voice matters, but nothing has changed.

“RCRC refuses to talk about
unborn children as just that,” Rohrs said. “They refuse to condemn
abortion as a form of birth control or gender selection. They affirm
abortion in any way.”

“I don’t speak for all young
women who are United Methodist, but as a mother of two, I speak for
those who have not been surrounded by the church’s support to cheer them
on to life.”